Los Angeles history

'Mommie told me to get the gun'

Everett Robert Ayala's last words on earth were: "Go ahead, shoot me,"
spoken to his 8-year-old foster daughter as he resumed beating his
wife, Pauline.

So Linda Louise Narez, who was holding a .30-caliber deer rifle, killed him instantly with a bullet to the chest.

Linda
had been raised from infancy by her aunt, Pauline Ayala, 29, and uncle,
Everett Ayala, 28, a construction worker. About 9 on a Tuesday night,
Pauline came home to 870 1/2 W. 9th St.
in Pomona and Everett began beating her after accusing her of having a
boyfriend. The brawl went from the kitchen to the bedroom and back to
the kitchen.

Finally, Pauline shouted to Linda to get the deer rifle from the closet and shoot Everett.

"Mommie told me to get the gun. Daddy told me to go ahead," Linda testified at the inquest. "I didn't know what to do."

Everett
went to the closet, got the deer rifle, loaded it, gave it to Linda and
said: "Go ahead, shoot me" as he resumed beating Pauline in the
bedroom.

Linda screamed "I can't!"

And then she pulled the trigger.

At
first, Pauline told Pomona police that she had killed her husband, but
after hours of questioning, the truth came out. The coroner's jury
returned a verdict of justifiable homicide.

Officially, the
case was closed, but that was only the beginning of the story. What
becomes of an 8-year-old who kills an abusive father? Unfortunately,
The Times offers no further information. Linda would be 58 now. I
wonder what the rest of her life was like.

The Social Security
Death Index lists a Pauline Ayala who was born Jan. 25, 1924, and died Nov. 19,
2002, but it's unclear whether this is the same woman.